Most of us know what a live linux cd is and more than likely many of us have our favorites. Some are great as just a basic Linux OS and others are more geared towards security.  And of coarse we should not forget there are some simple windows versions that are great for resetting a password. 
 
  What is the best version for cracking Wep on a wireless network?  You might ask “who cares, isn’t Wep outdated?”  Oh I wish that were true, but it’s still out there a lot. If you have any doubt, just war drive a few miles and you will find more than what you might expect. Heck, just scan your own neighborhood! Just from my house I can see 4 homes with Wep.  I suppose I should be happy that they are at least doing that.  You will even be more surprised by how many use nothing at all.

    I have used so many Distros for Wep cracking. Certainly all the better known ones such as Whax, Auditor, Backtrack, Operator, PHLAK, Knoppix ,Ubuntu,nUbuntu,etc.. I am sure I am forgetting a lot. Heck I have even made my own at one time.

    The one distro I have repeatedly have had the most success with has been Auditor. It has been so consistent in its results.  It works great with my Senao (NL-2511 CD PLUS EXT2) card.   One advantage is that it uses Void11 to deauthenticate the client from the access point. When the client reauthenticates, you will get your ARP packet so that now you can run aireplay.  If it’s a slow network you really need to be able to inject packets or its going to take forever to generate enough IVs so using aireplay is a must, but aireplay doesn’t work if you cant get even one arp request.   I have found Void11 works much more reliably than using aircrack as a deathentication tool.    The aircrack suite is a must for collecting, injecting and cracking packets, but has been hit or miss for me as a deathentication tool.

   Disadvantages of using Void11 is that you really need to be running 2 laptops to get the best results and its not very stealth. As far as stealth goes, I have never had anyone notice it bumping them off the network for a second. Most people assume it’s the access point acting up and seem to not care because they get right back on.   

    Being skilled at cracking Wep is still important for the Ethical Hacker because you will still run into sometimes if you are auditing small to mid size companies. If by chance you run into to it, pull out your Auditor and give it a go.